Bloody Brook and Searles Pond Resilience Plan StoryMap
Use this map tool to explore Searles Pond and Bloody Brook and the work we are doing to improve flooding issues.
This StoryMap was developed as part of the Bloody Brook and Searles Pond Resilience Plan, a collaboration between the cities of Lawrence, Methuen, Groundwork Lawrence and the Merrimack River Watershed Council to make Methuen and Lawrence communities more climate resilient and less flood prone. It is best viewed on a computer and may have reduced functionality on a mobile device.
Bloody Brook: a stream in an urban watershed
Investigate what the Bloody Brook watershed looks like today and in the past, to understand how it functions!
Use the map below to learn about the Bloody Brook watershed and how urbanization and reducing natural functions of the brook contributed to flooding.
Continue scrolling down to view the entire map story! Throughout, zoom in or out using the + and - buttons in the bottom right corner, and explore by clicking and dragging.
The Bloody Brook watershed is located in Methuen and Lawrence.
This map shows the above-ground portion of Bloody Brook in light blue, and the underground portion in black.
The Brook flows from northwest in Methuen to southeast in Lawrence.
The Brook originates from two sources of water in Methuen near the High School.
These two smaller Brooks both flow into Searles Pond.
Out of the pond, the Brook continues flowing southeast between Jackson Street and Queen Ave.
The Brook takes a turn at the Jehovah's Witness Church, and continues along Bicknell Ave.
It then goes underground behind the CVS at the intersection of Jackson and Swan Streets, close to the Methuen-Lawrence town line.
It continues under homes and businesses in Lawrence until finally, it flows into the Spicket River behind the Assembly of God Church, across from Dr. Nina Scarito Park.
The lighter shaded area outlined in white is the Bloody Brook watershed.
This means any rain that falls within this area ends up in Bloody Brook, and all of it leaves the watershed through one point - where the Bloody Brook flows into the Spicket River, at the southeast tip of the black line.
Bloody Brook didn't always look this way, though. Let's take a look at Bloody Brook historically, to better understand how it functions today.
This USGS Topo Map from 1888 shows Bloody Brook's channel, a much different shape than it is now, and fully above ground.
By 1918, the cities of Methuen and Lawrence had grown substantially compared to 1888. Jackson Street had been built, running along the brook. More roads and buildings started closing in on the brook in Lawrence where it flows into the Spicket River.
By 1944 Searles Pond was created and the Brook was re-routed to run along what is now Bicknell Ave, in it's current channel. This area was a wetland at the time. Past the Jackson and Swan St intersection, the Brook was put underground, and the city was built on top of it.
By 1955, development in Methuen and Lawrence continued and started crowding in on the wetland where current day Bicknell Ave is.
By 1979, major development had occurred. Route 213, 495 and 93 had been built. The residential development along Bicknell Ave closed in around the wetland.
Today, zoning laws are in place to prevent development in wetlands to both protect the wetlands and prevent development in a potentially problematic location where flooding will occur.
Where will the water go now?
Currently, the majority of land enclosed by Route 93, 213 and 495 is developed, impervious space, leaving little room for Bloody Brook or its former wetland to store and move water as it once did.
Without open space, an open channel and wetland areas, the storage capacity of the soil and the brook is greatly reduced. This causes flooding.
This is another way to view the extent of today's development. Here, the land use is shown in different colors.
Land use within the Bloody Brook watershed is primarily residential (the purple areas).
There are some naturally vegetated areas (the greens), particularly the Conservation Area around Searles Pond, the Methuen High School and the Holy Family Hospital.
(Layer Source: Dewitz, J., 2019, National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2005 Products: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P96HHBIE.)
The orange areas are impervious surfaces. These are areas like roads, parking lots, or buildings that water can't infiltrate.
You can see that the majority of the landcover in the Brook's watershed is impervious surface, especially in the lower part of the watershed closest to the Spicket River.
In a natural watershed, the soil soaks up water from rain like a sponge and releases it into rivers and streams slowly.
In urban watersheds with a lot of impervious surface like this one, the rainwater runs off quickly into storm drains and into Bloody Brook all at once, rather than slowly over time.
This can cause the Brook to overflow from filling up with water too quickly, and it is one major contribution to flooding.
(Layer Source: Dewitz, J., 2019, National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2005 Products: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P96HHBIE.)
While small relative to the rest of the watershed, the naturally vegetated areas like the Conservation Area around Searles Pond, the Methuen High School and the Holy Family Hospital that is still not impervious surface can be leveraged for their natural ways of absorbing rainwater and managing floods.
Just protecting these areas and preventing them from becoming more impervious surface can help prevent the flooding from getting worse.
Green infrastructure, or using nature to manage rainwater can also help. Water could be redirected to these areas during heavy rainstorms, or the habitat and vegetation in these areas could be improved to be able to accommodate even more water.
The yellow are areas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) predicts will flood during extremely large rain events. This is the 500 year flood zone.
We suspect that there are areas outside this floodzome that also flood, and as part of this project we investigated that in two ways:
- We developed a computer model to estimate flooded areas after large storms.
- We surveyed homes in and near the 500 year floodzone to better understand how often they experience flooding, and compared those results to our model.
(Layer source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, downloaded 11/28/2021 <https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/national-flood-hazard-layer>)
This area shows the modeled flooded area for a 2 year storm. A 2 year storm means every year, there is about a 1/2 or 50% chance a storm of this size (approx 3.1 inches falling over 24 hours) will occur.
For this size storm, for the most part, the water stays within the Pond and Brook but there is some flooding on the road on Bicknell Ave and Jackson Street.
Continue scrolling to see results from larger storms.
Storm recurrence: 5 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/5 or 20% chance Precipitation amount: 4.1 inches over 24 hours
Storm recurrence: 10 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/10 or 10% chance Precipitation amount: 5 inches over 24 hours
Storm recurrence: 50 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/50 or 2% chance Precipitation amount: 6.9 inches over 24 hours
Storm recurrence: 100 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/100 or 1% chance Precipitation amount: 7.9 inches over 24 hours
Storm recurrence: 500 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/500 or 0.2% chance Precipitation amount: 10.8 inches over 24 hours
The modeling shows that the 500 year storm in this study's analysis results in significantly more flooding than the FEMA floodzone predicts.
Bloody Brook: a stream in an urban channel
Take a tour along Bloody Brook today. See what it looks like when it's dry and when it's flooding!
As seen above, land use and development are contributing to flooding in the area. However, there are aspects of the brook and how it functions - erosion, sedimentation, restricted culverts and more - that are important factors as well.
This map gives a tour of the natural beauty and urban challenges of the Bloody Brook and Searles Pond. Learn how Bloody Brook functions in its urban channel, and how aspects of the Brook and the infrastructure it passes through may contribute to flooding.
Click on points in the map or photos along the bottom of the map to navigate!
Bloody Brook: an urban stream, in an urban watershed, in a changing climate
Over the past 120 years, we have been getting more rain and more intense storms in the Methuen/Lawrence area. With climate change, it is predicted that this trend will continue, leading to greater challenges with flooding.
Since 1893, the total precipitation that falls each year in Lawrence, has had an increasing trend.
This trend is expected to continue into the future under climate change: more rain each year.
Since 1893, the maximum precipitation that falls in a single day within a year has been on an increasing trend.
You can see that the largest daily maximums, or the largest amount of rain that has fallen in a single day, happened in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Large daily maximums are linked closely to flooding.
This trend is also expected to continue given climate change: more intense storms.
Data Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Daily Summaries at the Lawrence, MA climate station, Station No USC00194105. Accessed November 23, 2021. <www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets.
How will climate change impact flooding?
First, storms will become more intense and intense storms will occur more frequently. So, a 100 year storm under climate change will have more rain than a 100 year storm historically. That historical 100 year storm of 7.9 inches will in the future become a 25 year storm, or have a 4% chance of occurring each year rather than only a 1% chance. The "new" 100 year storm will see 10.9 inches fall in 24 hours.
As a results of larger storms, flooding will be more extensive...
In this map, the black area shows flooding under current conditions, and the colored area shows flooding under climate change.
Storm recurrence: 2 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/2 or 50% chance Precipitation amount: 3.8 inches over 24 hours
How will climate change impact flooding?
Storm recurrence: 5 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/5 or 20% chance Precipitation amount: 5 inches over 24 hours
How will climate change impact flooding?
Storm recurrence: 10 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/10or 10% chance Precipitation amount: 6.1 inches over 24 hours
How will climate change impact flooding?
Storm recurrence: 50 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/50 or 2% chance Precipitation amount: 9.2 inches over 24 hours
How will climate change impact flooding?
Storm recurrence: 100 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/100 or 1% chance Precipitation amount: 10.9 inches over 24 hours
How will climate change impact flooding?
Storm recurrence: 500 year storm Probability of occurring in any year: 1/500 or 0.2% chance Precipitation amount: 15.6 inches over 24 hours
Water Quality: the less visible impacts of flooding
When water flows over streets, parking lots and buildings, it picks up bacteria and pollution.
In a natural watershed, soil filters out these pollutants before the water reaches the rivers and streams. In an urban watershed like that of Bloody Brook, the water flows directly into storm drains and the Brook, carrying the pollutants with it.
High concentrations of bacteria have been found in Bloody Brook in the past, and may be due to runoff, illicit sewer connections, or a combination of the two.
When it floods, exposure to these bacteria may be putting people at risk because the flood water may enter people's homes, basements, or yards, as we see in the video below.
Video of flooding in Methuen resident's yard. Video provided by Methuen resident, Yoraider.
To better understand how much bacteria is in Bloody Brook, in normal conditions and after it rains, we are monitoring the water quality in the Brook at 6 locations.
To do this, we visit the Brook every two weeks, collect a sample for bacteria analysis, as well as temperature, salinity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, and dissolved oxygen reading from a handheld meter.
Just as natural areas are good at absorbing floodwater, they are also good at filtering water. The same nature-based solutions that can alleviate flooding can also improve water quality. Data collected now can be compared to data collected after creating more natural areas to see how well nature is doing at reducing bacteria in the Brook.
Bloody Brook Bacteria Levels and water quality, so far..
Click on the interactive dashboard below to view the water quality data we collected, and click the button below to read a full report analyzing the data.
Water Quality in Bloody Brook
Solutions and Next Steps
As a part of this project, Pare Corp analyzed flooding issues in Bloody Brook under current conditions and climate change conditions. They have proposed solutions to flooding, some like green infrastructure, which will also improve water quality, provide shade, alleviate the urban heat island effect, and more. To learn more about these proposed solutions, read the full report.
Next steps are to identify priorities and locate funding to move the solutions forward.
To learn how you can start contributing to solutions, check out this guide to implementing green infrastructure at home!
Thank you for visiting our StoryMap! We hope to learned something about Bloody Brook and Searles Pond. If you have questions about anything here, please contact Susie at the Merrimack River Watershed Council: susie@merrimack.org
Please check out our websites to learn more about other work we are doing to make our communities more resilient to climate change, and make our rivers and streams healthier!
